Forty-two of the top senior amateur players from across four age brackets and traveling from all four corners of the United States have made their way to Duke University Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina, to, well, duke it out.
Over the next three days, four age divisions will crown a match-play champion with each winner receiving 1,200 Golfweek Player of the Year points. With just a handful of events left in the Golfweek senior amateur season, the competition is sure to be cranked up as the season winds down.
NOTE: Seeding for this event was based off of the Golfweek Player of the Year rankings as of August 1st. If the player was not ranked in Golfweek’s PoY rankings, random draw or national ranking was used.
Senior Bracket (55-64)
Thirteen players began the event, giving the top three seeds (Todd Hendley, Eddie Hargett and Kevin VandenBerg) byes into the afternoon quarterfinal matches.
First to advance from the morning matches was 2020 Golfweek Senior Player of the Year and 2022 Challenge Cup captain, Craig Hurlbert. As the 8-seed, Hurlbert was set to take on 9-seed Thomas Immenschuh. Unfortunately, Immenschuh had travel issues and was unable to make it to the course in time for the 7:50 a.m. match time. With the forfeit, Hurlbert found himself a date with top-seeded Todd Hendley.
Back-to-back three-putt bogeys put Hurlbert in a quick 2-down hole to start the match.
“I started really slow,” Hurlbert told Golfweek. “But it actually kind of helped me focus.”
Winning the third hole to get it back to one down, Hurlbert worked his way back to even as the pair made the turn.
Winning hole Nos. 9, 10, 11 and 12, Hurlbert was able to put the throttle down in the blink of an eye to take a commanding 3-up lead through 12. Hendley was able to pick up a hole on No. 15 but was defeated on No. 16, 3 and 2.
For Hurlbert, this event is a prime tune-up for the U.S. Senior Amateur later this month.
“I feel like I’m getting close, but all these reps really help,” Hurlbert said. “It’s a Golfweek event so that’s one of the reasons I like to come [play] and the other reason is because it gives you invaluable reps in match play which candidly we don’t get a lot of on the senior circuit so to speak.”
As he continues to come into form, Hurlbert will face off against 4-seed Brian Keenan.
Defeating 13-seed Brian Kennedy 5 and 4 in the morning session, Kennan faced off against 5-seed Allen Peake who won his morning match 1 up against 12-seed Steve…
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